Measuring the Absorption Coefficient

Ing. Alejandro Bidondo

abidondo@untref.edu.ar
www.untref.edu.ar

1
 Basic Metrology:
Error:
Diferencia ente el valor verdadero y el valor medido.
Precision:
Hace referencia a la repetibilidad (en el tiempo) del error.
Accuracy (Exactitud):
Es la medida del error que presenta un instrumento.

Exactitud baja. Exactitud alta. Exactitud alta.

Precisin alta. Precisin baja. Precisin alta.

2
 Traditional measurements
Impedance tube: (for small samples)

ISO 10534-1: 1996 Acoustics Determination of sound absorption coefficient and

impedance in impedance tubes Part 1: Method using standing wave method.
ISO 10534-2: 1998 - Acoustics Determination of sound absorption coefficient and
impedance in impedance tubes Part 2: Transfer function method.

3
 2
preflejada
1
pincidente
Absorcin 2
c c ROE 1
2
I
r r 2 2 1 1
I i 2 c2 1c1 ROE 1
Presin mxima
ROE
Presin mnima

4
Impedance tube:

Road surface samples 5

 Impedance Tube: Common error

(debido al corte incorrecto de las muestras del material - due to bad cutting the material samples)

6
 Impedance Tube:
Analyzing road absorption coefficients: portable Impedance Tube.

7
 Traditional measurements
Reverberation chamber: (for large samples)

ISO 354:2003 Acoustics Measurement of sound absorption in a reverberation room.

ASTM C-423 -09a: Standard Test Method for Sound Absorption and Sound Absorption
Coefficients by the Reverberation Room Method
American Society for Testing
and Materials (ASTM),

Air Volume 180m3

Scale reverberation chamber
8
Reverberation chamber Absorption Measurement: ISO 354

Surface of material: 12m2

Air Volume 180m3

fSchroeder<120Hz

How would you measure (or

demonstrate) low modal density in a
room?

9
 Rev Chamber: ISO 354 Reverberation room
Shape of reverberation room:

The shape of the reverberation room shall be such that the following condition is fulfilled:
I max 1.9 3 V
Where Imax is the length of the longest straight line which fits within the boundary of the
room (e.g. in a rectangular room it is the major diagonal), in metres;
V is the volume of the room, in cubic metres.

In order to achieve a uniform distribution of natural frequencies (modes), especially in the

low-frequency bands, no two dimensions of the room shall be in the ratio of small whole
numbers.
Diffusion of the sound field:
The decaying sound field in the room shall be sufficiently diffuse. In order to achieve
satisfactory diffusion whatever the shape of the room, the use of stationary or suspended
diffusers or rotating vanes is, in general, required.

The volume of the reverberation room shall be at least 150 m3. For new constructions, the volume is
strongly recommended to be at least 200 m3. When the volume of the room is greater than about 500
m3, it may not be possible to measure sound absorption accurately at high frequencies because of air
absorption.
10
 Rev Chamber: ISO 354 Reverberation room
6.2 Test specimens
6.2.1 Plane absorbers
6.2.1.1 The test specimen shall have an area between 10 m2 and 12 m2. If the volume V of
the room is greater than 200 m3, the upper limit for the test specimen area shall be
increased by the factor (V/200 m3)2/3.
The area to be chosen depends on the room volume and on the absorption capability of
the test specimen.
The larger the room, the larger the test area should be. For specimens with small
absorption coefficient, the upper limit area should be chosen.
6.2.1.2 The test specimen shall be of rectangular shape with a ratio of width to length of
between 0,7 and 1. It should be placed so that no part of it is closer than 1 m to any edge
of the boundary of the room; the distance shall be at least 0,75 m. The edges of the
specimen shall preferably not be parallel to the nearest edge of the room. If necessary,
heavy test specimens may be mounted vertically along the walls of the room, and directly
resting on the floor. In this case, the requirement of at least 0,75 m distance need not be
respected.
6.2.1.3 The test specimen shall be installed in one of the mountings specified in Annex B,
unless the relevant specifications provided by the producer or the application details
provided by the user require a different mounting. The measurement of the reverberation
time of the empty room shall be made in the absence of the frame or the side walls of the
test specimen except for the barrier around a Type J mounting.
11
 Rev Chamber: ISO 354 Reverberation room
7.1.2 Microphones and microphone positions
The directivity characteristic of the microphones used for the measurement shall be
omnidirectional. The measurements shall be made with different microphone positions
which are at least 1,5 m apart, 2 m from any sound source and 1 m from any room
surface and the test specimen. Decay curves measured at different microphone positions
shall not be combined in any way.
7.1.3 Source positions
The sound in the reverberation room shall be generated by a sound source with an
omnidirectional radiation pattern. Different sound source positions which are at least 3
m apart shall be used.
7.1.4 Number of microphone and loudspeaker positions
The number of spatially independent measured decay curves shall be at least 12.
Therefore the number of microphone positions times the number of sound source
positions shall be at least 12. The minimum number of microphone positions shall be
three, the minimum number of sound source positions shall be two. It is permissible to
use more than one sound source simultaneously provided the difference in the radiated
power is within a tolerance band of 3 dB for each one-third-octave band. If more than
one sound source is used for excitation simultaneously, the number of spatially
independent measured decay curves may be reduced to six.
12
 Cmara reverberante

Medicin del Coeficiente de Absorcin

1
RT60:
Lmax 1.9 V 3
Segundo 5 5 5 4.5 3.5 2
1 1 s
3 3
Dim _ sugeridas : 1 : 2 : 4 Hertz 125 250 500 1K 2K 4K
13
 Repetitividad y Reproducibilidad
The standard defines repeatability as the value below which the absolute difference
between two single test results obtained with the same method on identical test
material, under the same conditions can be expected to lie with a probability of 95%.*1+

1 n
r t 2 i
2
Anexo C de ISO354
n 1 i 1

t: Factor de la distribucin de Student.

t = 2.78 para n = 5;
t = 2.23 para n = 10;
n: cantidad de mediciones.

The reproducibility is the value below which the absolute difference between two
single test results obtained with the same method on identical test material in a
different laboratory may be expected to lie with a probability of 95%.

[1]: ASTMC423, Standard Test Method for Sound Absorption and Sound Absorption Coefficients by the 14
Reverberation Room Method. 2002, ASTM International.
Repetitividad: valores de ejemplo

15
 ISO 354: Repeatability
Repeatability of measured reverberation times:
The relative standard deviation of the reverberation time T20, evaluated over a 20 dB
decay range, can be estimated by the following formula (see ISO/TR 140-13 for details):
3.59
2.42
20 T N
, for each analysis band.
T f T
20 (T): is the standard deviation of the reverberation time T20;
T: is the reverberation time measured [s];
F: is the centre frequency of the one-third-octave band [Hz];
N: is the number of decay curves evaluated.

An example of the standard deviation of measurement of T20 at 12 positions with 3 repetitions of

decay registration at each position is illustrated in next figure .

16
 Rev Chamber absorption measurement: ASTM C-423
El mtodo de la ASTM-C423 requiere de la medicin de la absorcin con el recint vaco y de la
absorcin del recinto con la muestra en l.
A A2 A1
Donde:
A = absorption of the specimen, m2 or Sabins,
A1 = absorption of the empty reverberation chamber, m2 or Sabins, and
A2 = absorption of the reverberation room after the specimen has been installed, m2 or
Sabins.

El incremento en la absorcin es dividido por el rea de la muestra para obtener el Coeficiente de

Absorcin.

A2 A1
1
S
Donde:
= absorption coefficient of the test specimen, no units or Sabins/ft2.
S = area of the test specimen, m2 or ft2, and
1= absorption coefficient of the surface covered by the specimen.

The absorption coefficient, 1, of the room surface covered by the specimen should be added
when it is significant. However, the absorption coefficients of a hard surface, such as the floor of
a reverberation chamber, are so small that they may be neglected and no adjustment should be
made for such a floor.
This coefficient is supposed to be dimensionless and is described in Sabins per square foot,
Sabins/ft2. 17
 Rev Chamber: ISO 354 Reverberation room

Sabine + air absorption 0,161V

correction from Ed Ledhert: RT 60
S Sabine 4mV
Random incidence In case of having the
A2 A1
absorption coefficient climating conditions
inside of the Rev
S Chamber.

Surface of the specimen [m2] 55 3V

A2 4 V m2
c T2
With the specimen 55 3V
A1 4 V m1 Climate conditions: ISO 9613-1

c T1
Without the specimen

18
Statistical Acoustics

Air Sound Absorption:

19
 ISO 354
and
ASTM C-423 RT20

comparison:

RT25

20
 Diferencias entre ISO & ASTM :
A. What is the sample shape and size required by each standard? (ASTM-C423)
ASTM-C423 requires a rectangular sample with a size of 72 ft 2 (6.69m2). The dimensions
shall be a length of 9 ft (2.74m) and a width of 8ft (2.44m). The standard will accept, as
an option, a sample size of 64 ft2 (5.95m2) with a length and width of 8ft (2.44m).
B. What is the sample shape and size required by each standard? (ISO-354)
ISO-354 requires a rectangular sample with a size of 10m2 to 12m2. The dimensions of
the sample shall have a width to length ratio of 0.7 and 1.0.
C. What is the sample shape and size required by each standard? (ISO-17497-1)
ISO-17497-1 requires a circular sample with a minimum area of 7.068 meters2. The
dimensions of the sample shall have a minimum diameter of 3 meters.

What are the differences between the standards?

ASTM-C423 and ISO-354 require similar sample shapes and sizes but ISO-17497-1 requires
a circular sample.
ASTM-C423, ISO-354 and ISO17497-1 can use different methods to measure the RT of the
reverberation room.
All standards have different sample area requirements.
All standards have different perimeter requirements.
All standards give different Coefficients of Absorption. 21
 Rev Chamber: some experimental results
MATERIAL: 15 elements of mineral wool (Rockwool type 211, thickness 100 mm and density of ca. 44 kg/m3) in a wooden casing (1,2*0,6m),
covered with a nonwoven fleece (Lantor type 3103HO) and an open wire mesh for protection. The back is made of a 3 mm hardboard.

Improving the accuracy of sound absorption measurement according to ISO 354. Vercammen M. L. S. Melbourne, Australia. ISRA 2010. 2010.

22
Rev Chamber: suggestions on diffusers

1:

2:

23
Rev Chamber: boundary diffusers

24
 Difusores en Cmaras Reverberantes:

J.L. Davy et al.[2] investigated the suggested methods of ISO 354 and found an empirical
value for the optimal diffuser-to-chamber floor surface area ratio.

Davy defined as the ratio of the total diffuser area (both sides) to the chamber floor
area. He tested the absorption of a specimen, varying from 0 to 1.75 in two chambers,
with volumes of 200 and 600 m3. He found that for both chambers the sound absorption
coefficient of a specimen increased linearly with , until was approximately 1.250.14
and remained constant thereafter [2]. Therefore, the optimum value of was 1.25.

For comparison, ASTM C423 and ISO 354 state that, in general, the optimum diffuser area
is 15-25% of the total chamber surface area.

Although the exact relationship depends on the chamber shape, these two conclusions
are not incompatible.

[2]: Davy, J.L., W. A. Davern, P. Dubout, Qualification of Room Diffusion for

Absorption Measurements. Applied Acoustics, 1989. 28: p. 177-185.
25
 Absorption coefficient vs. Real Life conditions
The Absorption Coefficient is used in calculating the reverberation time of closed spaces such
as auditoriums, churches, working offices, theaters, classrooms, recording studios, etc. Some of
the equations for calculating the reverberation time are:
For Sabine Equation:
0.161V
RT 60 If 1, RT60 0.
S Sabine
For Eyring Equation:

0.161V
RT 60 If 1, RT60 0.
S ln(1 Eyring )

Millington Sette equation (1933):

0,163 V
RT 60

4mV Si ln 1 Millingtoni
i

The perimeter is only used to simplify flexibility (for changing materials cut and try) geometrical models
Edge diffraction edge absorption 26
Statistical Acoustics

Absorption coefficients:
Sabine & Eyring

Sabine: is that absorption coefficient measured from the initial and final RT60
variation inside a reverberant chamber as states in ISO 354 standard.

55,3 V 1 S final total S Material

Sabine
S Material c RT 60 final S final total RT 60inicial

Into a Rev Chamber

BUT:
Eyring: It is a statistical descriptor. It is calculated from the flux
resistance or the acoustic impedance at normal incidence (Kundts
tube).

27
Statistical Acoustics

Absorption coefficients:
Sabine & Eyring

Sabine: A S Sabine

Eyring:
A S 2,3 log1 Eyring

Sabine 2,3 log10 1 Eyring

28
Statistical Acoustics

Absorption Coefficients:
Sabine & Millington

29
Acoustic Absorbers and Diffusers. Cox, T. 2004
Absorption Coefficient:

Tubo de Kundt

30
Absorption coefficient
What if > 1?
EDGE EFFECT: In cases where the absorption footprint is larger than the area of the specimen,
the sound absorption coefficient is greater than 1.00. This is called the edge effect or
diffraction effect because it results from wave diffraction at the edges of the specimen.

The effect increases with

decreasing frequency,
decreasing specimen size,
increasing aspect ratio, and
increasing sound absorption
Relative edge coefficient.
length:

E
Perimeter

stat S
Valor medido
Perimeter

[9] [9]: A. de Bruijn, The edge effect of sound absorbing 31

materials revisited, NAG 2007 .
Absorption coefficient

Absorcin
NRC: Noise reduction Coefficient.
Es el promedio de los coeficientes de absorcin en las frec. 250Hz, 500Hz, 1KHz y
2KHz, expresado al mltiplo ms cercano a 0.05.

Frecuencia [Hz]

125 0.07

250 0.26

500 0.7

1K 0.99

2K 0.99

4K 0.98

(0.26 0.7 0.99 0.99)

NRC 0.75 32
4
Fenmenos Fsicos, Herramientas Acsticas

Absorcin

33
Fenmenos Fsicos, Herramientas Acsticas
Coeficientes de absorcin de 1 de lana
de vidrio vs. espaciamiento de la pared
Absorcin slida trasera:

34
Fenmenos Fsicos, Herramientas Acsticas

Absorcin

= f(Diferentes montajes):

La absorcin de un material
depende de las condiciones de
montaje mecnico.

35
Fenmenos Fsicos, Herramientas Acsticas

Absorcin
Efectos del montaje en la absorcin de la superficie acstica:

36
Fenmenos Fsicos, Herramientas Acsticas

Absorcin Alfombra tipo todo terreno.

Coeficientes de absorcin de
diferentes alfombras

37
Fenmenos Fsicos, Herramientas Acsticas
Tabla de coeficientes de absorcin:

Absorcin

38
Absorcin

39
 Absorcin del Aire (m)
Absorcin del Aire en funcin de la humedad relativa y de las frecuencias.

El aire atena ms las altas frecuencias

que las medias y que las bajas.

En volmenes importantes no tomarlo en

cuenta puede acarrear una psima
prediccin de la inteligibilidad de la
palabra.

Es un dato til para el

control de ruidos al aire
libre.

40
 Individual Experiment:

Measure the statistical absorption coefficient of a sample applying ISO 354, in 1/3
octave bands. Choose any room, describing it geometrically and in acoustic terms.

Use 2 (two) different arrangements of the sample under test.

Calculate the Repeatability.

Calculate the edge effect portion, as Ten Wolde results. Graphs in function of
frequency.

Produce conclusions on every related topic, including systematic errors.

Any programming or signal processing software development is very welcome. 41

 In Geometric and Statistical Room Acoustic Models
the absorption coefficients of surfaces are required.

How can these be determined if the room is

already built?

May one use the Sabine absorption coefficients?

Can one measure the absorption coefficient of a

surface after it is installed?

42
 In Situ measurements: Motivation
What if you dont know the absorption coefficient of a material or youre
not sure of its real use absorption coefficient?

An in-situ method of sound absorption coefficient measurement could be of use in many

industries including the automotive industry which could benefit from the ability to
measure surfaces such as seats, door panels, and headliners after installation.

ISO standard 13472-1 Acoustics -

Measurement of sound absorption
properties of road surfaces in
situ - Part 1: Extended surface method.

43
Concept

44
 Theory
the sound absorption coefficient is estimated through the sound reflection
coefficient measurement.
Distance
1 2
( f ) 1 2 Rp ( f )
compensation
coefficient
a Pressure Reflection Coefficient

pr (d r ) Reflected and incident sound pressures are function of

frequency and sound paths distances.
pi (di )

pd F IR
Pressures are the Fourier Transforms of the reflected and
incident Impulse Responses.

pr f
2

R f
2
Reflection coefficient is the fraction between reflected
pi f
2 and incident energies.

45
 Measurement Setup
Absorber sample radius r (considering spherical sound spreading):

rSampledArea
1
ds dm c TW ds c TW 2 dm c TW c TW
ds dm c TW 2
TW: Time window length

Attenuation coefficient:
ds dm
a
ds dm
Attenuation due to
divergence of spherical
waves

Pseudo Free field thru

time windowing.

dm

ds

46
 Methods:

Half Blackman-Harris.
Rectangular.

H absorber f
2

f 1
H referencewall f

Windowing. Reference wall: relative

In situ Absorption absorption coeff.
Measurement IR Substraction.
Direct path.

Using the attenuation

coefficient 1/a2
Direct IR substraction from direct + reflected IR. (inverse square law)
Direct IR should be taken in an anechoic sound field.

47
 The subtraction technique allows the
IR Substraction: microphone to be placed very close to
the surface-under-test and to make a
temporal window around the reflection
limited only by the next-arriving
(parasitic) reflection from the
environment

Parasitic
reflections:
Windowed
out

Cancellation requires an exact inverse of the direct wave. Even a one sample
48
difference or slight phase shift will result in incomplete cancellation.
Direct wave measured
in anechoic field (or
equivalent).

IR Substraction
Example:

( Dir Re fl )

1 10 10

xdB

1 10 10

XdB should be always negative

49
IR Substraction
Example:

50
Attenuation and Absorption Coefficient:

Values in yellow mean anechoic situation.

51
 Distance attenuation coefficient:
Irregular To apply to the source reflected IR.
surface
under test

Attenuation due to
the larger sound path

Is this the distance

from the surce at
Regular
wich sperical waves
surface
really spread off?
under test

Source of error: If S.U.T. has an irregular surface, Drefl distance is uncertain. 52

 Impulse response:

Reflections isolation by
using a Rectangular or
Blackman Harris time
window.

In situ measurements of acoustic

properties of surfaces. Mallais, S. 2009.
53
Impulse Response Windowing:

54
Example Arrays:

55
Example Arrays:

56
 Systematic errors:

Parasitic reflections: proper windowing.

Small sample size.
Inaccurate acoustic center (compact source aproximation: 2b << )
Not enough low freq data: duration of the time windowing.
Irregular geometric absorber surface.
Low freq resolution when trying impulse substraction.
Diffraction from sound source. 57
Effects of Systematic Errors:

58
Systematic errors:

Parasitic reflections:
proper windowing:
Recommended

Rectangular
window with half-
Hann portions on
either side:

In Situ Measurements
of Acoustic
Properties of Surfaces.
Mallais, S. 2009.

59
Systematic errors:
Inaccurate Acoustic Center:
(f): correction factor to the propagation distance for low frequencies.

The compact source approximation is valid when the source is much smaller than the
wavelength of its radiation:
f
c
2b

2 b f
c
2b
???
f
c
0
2b
source (speaker or baffle) radius

From the IEC standard [7], the acoustic centre of a sound source is: For a sound emitting
transducer, for a sinusoidal signal of given frequency and for a specified direction and
distance, the point from which the approximately spherical wavefronts, as observed in a
small region around the observation point, appear to diverge. The thrust of this definition
may be to ensure that the amplitude of the acoustic pressure accurately follows a 1/r
dependence.

1 pr f
2

a
ds dm ( f ) 1 2
a pi f 2
Correction (when needed):
ds dm
60
(Direct path method)
Systematic errors:
Acoustic Center ( Cabinet Center):
It is defined in [1] and [2] as the position of the point from which spherical wavefronts
appear to diverge, and in [3] and [4] as the position from which the
sound pressure varies inversely as the distance.
Knowledge of the acoustic center is of concern whenever a well-defined distance to a
source is needed.

The acoustic centre is that point for which the polar response is truly omni -directional
at frequencies for which the wavelength is large compared to the source size.

In general the acoustic center of a source varies with the frequency, with the
direction of the observer, and with the distance from the source [1] as
demonstrated theoretically in [5] and [6]. Also with cabinet and speaker size [7].
[1]: C. L. Morfey, Dictionary of Acoustics (Academic, San Diego, 2001).
[2]: IEC International Standard 61094-3, Measurement microphones, Part 3: Primary methods for free-field
calibration of laboratory standard microphones by the reciprocity technique, 1995.
*3+: IEC International Standard 50(801), International electrotechnical vocabulary, 1994.
*4+: American National Standard ANSI S1.1, Acoustical Terminology, 1994.
*5+: J. R. Cox, Jr., Physical limitations on free-field microphone calibration, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Ph.D. thesis, 1954.
[6]: K. Rasmussen, Acoustic centre of condenser microphones, The Acoustics Laboratory, Technical University of
Denmark, Report No. 5, 1973.
*7+: Polar plots at low frequencies: the acoustic centre. Vanderkooy, J., Henwood, D. AES. 2006. 61
 Acoustic Center ( Cabinet Center):
For wavelengths much larger than the size of the cabinet, the acoustic flow
pattern shows a very simple symmetry at some distance from the cabinet, essentially
pointing to the real natural centre of the system. In addition this leads to a very
pleasing set of nested polar responses versus angle for the lower frequencies [7].

62
Acoustic Center:

63
 Acoustic Center:
Acoustic responses have frequency character that scales inversely with size. At low
frequencies the wavelength is much larger than the loudspeaker, and distance to the
acoustic centre will be scaled by the loudspeaker size, R, so that the ratio /R is the
relevant variable.

S0
d 1
180
S Pressure decay: = 1/r

S0
2 1
S180

R (Half) Speaker

Cabinet radius. 64
 Acoustic Center:

a a a

= { a ~ 0.66 a ~ 0.5 a} [7], [8]

Just for frequencies with much larger than speaker size.

For typical loudspeaker boxes, the acoustic centre concept is valid up to about 200 Hz, hence the whole sub-bass
region of the spectrum is encompassed. The concept remains useful to even higher frequencies. [8]

[7]: Polar plots at low frequencies: the acoustic centre. Vanderkooy, J., Henwood, D. AES. 2006.
*8+: Applicatins of the Acoustic Centre. Vanderkooy, J. 122nd AES Convention. Vienna. Austria. 2007. 65
Acoustic Center: And what for intermediate frequencies?

For very high frequencies, the new method gives an acoustic centre position which is
essentially at the source, and the curve of the above figure would hover near zero
position for frequencies above 1kHz. This is reasonable, since at very high frequencies,
we would expect a point source to send out spherical waves precisely from where it is
located, and line-of-sight ray tracing would be appropriate.
Another point to make regarding the acoustic centre at intermediate frequencies is that
the concept does not break down quickly as frequency rises. The flow pattern near the
source does show some modification as the wavelength goes down and approaches the
source size, but this process is gradual. If one is fairly close to a transducer, the acoustic
centre concept may be useful well into the region in which the response is no longer
quite omnidirectional. [8] 66
Systematic errors:

Not enough low freq data:

The low end of the usable frequency range is determined by the (limited) length of the time
windows. 1
f min
Tw
The direct sound time window cannot be made so long as to overlap the reflected response,
whereas the reflected sound time window is limited by the tail of the direct response, and the
parasitic reflections.

Both windows can be extended by using the subtraction technique as described by E. Mommertz
in Angle-dependent in-situ measurements of reflection coefficients using a subtraction
technique (Applied Acoustics, Vol.46, 1995, pp. 251-263).

It can be seen that a frequency resolution on the order of 10Hz requires a time window of one
tenth of a second, corresponding to a nearest surface of about 17m away. This is half the distance
that the reflected sound wave travels. On the other hand, a frequency resolution on the order of
one 100Hz is achieved with a nearest surface of almost 2m. It is therefore clear that the frequency
resolution of a measurement is limited by the geometry of the experimental setup.

67
Systematic errors:

Not enough low freq data:

1) The difference between the arrival time of the reflected wave and the arrival
time of the incident wave: tri = tref - tinc.

2) The difference between the arrival time of the foor reflection and the arrival
time of the reflected wave: tfr = tfloor - tref .

3) The difference between the arrival time of the speaker reflection and the arrival
time of the reflected wave: tsr = tspk - tref .

t = min{tref - tinc; tfloor - tref ; tspk tref}

68
Systematic errors:
Diffraction from sound source:

Tube
speaker

Spherical
speaker

Auratone

69
 Ideal Uniform distribution vs. Real Gaussian distribution
of impinguing sound energy over the sample:
Therefore, a non-dimensionalized parameter, ke, which is multiplication of the wavenumber and the
characteristic length of a sample, is introduced to effectively indicate the general trend of the
relative errors. A high value of ke means a high frequency and/or a large sample.
2
Wavenumber k

The angular distribution of energy density incident on a sample has been simulated for a
rectangular room and a reverberation chamber with non-parallel surfaces by using the beam
tracing method. A large variation in incident energy density was found depending on the source
position. To achieve a uniform distribution, the source should be located perpendicularly from the
boundary of the target surface, as close as possible to the target surface. Therefore a room with
non-parallel walls is advantageous for obtaining a uniform distribution. A long distance from a
source to a target surface results in a concentration of acoustic energy near the normal direction.
The simulated reverberant energy distribution plays the role of a weighting factor in calculating the
angle-weighted absorption coefficient. The importance of non-uniform incident energy becomes
significant for high ke values. For smaller values of ke, the calculated absorption coefficient
adopting fairly uniform distribution agrees well with the measurement, while the averaged
Gaussian-like weighting function agrees better with the measurement for high ke.
Cheol Ho Jeong. A correction of random incidence absorption coefficients for the angular distribution of acoustic
energy under measurement conditions. Acoustic Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering. Technical 70
University of Denmark (DTU).
Ke & error from uniform absorption coefficient:

Rev chamber
measurements

Relative error

Cheol Ho Jeong. A correction of random incidence absorption coefficients for the angular distribution of acoustic
energy under measurement conditions. Acoustic Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering. Technical
University of Denmark (DTU). 71
 Individual Experiment:
Instructions:
Choose any room. Measure the in situ absorption coefficients. Calculate
the statistical RT60 (total and by bands). Get conclusions on every related
topic, including systematic errors. Give explanations of applied practices.
Main Objetive:

Comparison between the statistical calculation of the reverberation

time by measuring the individual absorption coefficients, and the
measured RT60 with Log Sine Sweep techniques.

Secondary objetives:

Description of the sound field inside the room in relation with the
experimental results.
Comparison of the obtained absorption coefficients with the available
commercial information of each one.
Analysis of the systematic errors. Develop a proposal to minimize them.
Any programming or signal processing software development is very welcome. 72
Butacas: Mtodo de Kath & Kuhl

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